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Hicks receives Parking Professional of the Year Award

Duane Hicks, manager of Parking and Transportation Services at UC Davis Medical Center, has received the Parking Professional of the Year Award from the California Public Parking Association.

Duane Hicks

The association bestows the award on an individual who has “demonstrated excellence through significant and outstanding achievements” in one or more of these categories:

Creativity and innovation — Such as a solution to a problem, creation of a new product, and design of a news system.

Contributions — Such as to individual institutions, to the California Public Parking Association, or to the parking industry.

Demonstration of dedication to the parking industry by increasing the visibility and promoting the image of the parking profession.

Hicks received the award as recognition for his instrumental role in the design, implementation and development of operational procedures for Parking Structure 3. The objectives in that regard were to increase visitor access, increase patient satisfaction, support convenient parking for faculty and staff, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the area around the hospital.

Parking Structure 3 made an immediate and beneficial impact on inpatients’ evaluations of parking near the hospital. Following the structure’s opening in July 2012, inpatients’ rating of hospital parking rose dramatically. The percentage of “excellent” scores rose from 20 percent in June 2012 to 27 percent in July and 28 percent in August.

The new structure has a parking guidance system that consists of two parts. One employs electronic displays that show the number of open spaces on each floor. An advanced, color-coded lighting system indicates open and occupied spaces.

The second feature consists of lights that allow drivers to easily see which spaces are open and closed. Green lights above spaces will indicate they are open. A red light above a space will indicate that it is occupied.

The parking structure includes elements that promote environmental sustainability, including solar panels on the roof that generate all of the electricity needed to operate the structure.

There are several charging stations for electric vehicles on the first level. Preferred parking is designated for three-person carpools, vanpools and motorcycles, and there is a secured storage area for 40-plus bicycles on the first level, protected by electronic key access.

UC Davis Medical Center is a comprehensive academic medical center where clinical practice, teaching and research converge to advance human health. Centers of excellence include the National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center; the region's only Level 1 pediatric and adult trauma centers; the UC Davis MIND Institute, devoted to finding treatments and cures for neurodevelopmental disorders; and the UC Davis Children's Hospital. The medical center serves a 33-county, 65,000-square-mile area that stretches north to the Oregon border and east to Nevada. It further extends its reach through the award-winning telemedicine program, which gives remote, medically underserved communities throughout California unprecedented access to specialty and subspecialty care. For more information, visit medicalcenter.ucdavis.edu.